I am a white, privileged, well-off, 61-year-old former Republican religious right-wing activist who changed his mind about religion and politics long ago. The New York Times profiled my change of heart saying that to my former friends I’m considered a “traitorous prince” since my religious-right family was once thought of as “evangelical royalty.” You see, only in the Mafia, the British Royal family and big time American religion is a nepotistic rise to power seen as normal. And I was good at it. And I hated it while hypocritically profiting from it—until, that is, in the mid-1980s, I quit. These...

Burned Georgia Tech student dies from injuries The Georgia Tech graduate student burned over 90 percent of his body last month died Thursday, the Institute said. Saamer Akhshabi was burned in a Feb. 4 explosion inside his apartment, where investigators found a suspected Molotov cocktail and several plastic bottles filled with gasoline and kerosene. Akhshabi, 26, was transported in critical condition to Grady Memorial Hospital, where he died early Thursday, Georgia Tech shared with the campus. "We have worked closely with other law enforcement agencies during the investigation of this tragic incident," Robert Connolly, interim police chief for Georgia Tech,...

Infamous abortion practitioner Henry Morgentaler — responsible for legalized abortions in Canada funded at taxpayer expense — has passed away at the age of 90. Morgentaler is the man who opened up Canada to legal abortions in 1988. Denise Mountenay, the head of the Canada Silent No More Campaign, a group for women who have had abortions and regret their decisions because of physical complications or mental health issues afterwards, talked about him previously. “For years he totally ignored the laws of the land and has profited, making millions of dollars. He and his clinics have been sued for damages...

Sean Penn on the Death of Hugo Chavez: "I Lost a Friend" Despite his criticisms of the United States, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez did have supporters in Hollywood, including Sean Penn, who mourned Chavez's death Tuesday. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez dead at 58 "Today the people of the United States lost a friend it never knew it had," Penn said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. "And poor people around the world lost a champion. I lost a friend I was blessed to have. My thoughts are with the family of President Chavez and the people of Venezuela." Chavez,...

Local child molester slain in L.A. prison An inmate serving a life sentence stemming from the sexual assault of a child in Oceanside was killed Tuesday in his prison cell in Los Angeles County. Francisco Javier Aguilar, 36, was found dead in his cell at the California State Prison in Lancaster after 1 a.m., authorities said. He had a cable wrapped around his neck, The Los Angeles Times reported. The cause of death has not been released. An autopsy was set for Thursday, according to the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office. Aguilar’s cellmate, Aaron Alvarez, 42, has been arrested in...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Anti-abortion activist Randall Terry is calling on people to burn effigies of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid this Halloween, as part of a "Burn in Hell" video contest to protest the health care legislation in Congress. Terry, founder of Operation Rescue, said Tuesday that the contest serves as a political and spiritual statement that "gives people a chance to peacefully vent their rage." "If Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid force us to pay for child killing and they die unrepentant, they will burn in hell for this," Terry said in a telephone...

On This Day In History - October 9, 1967 Professional revolutionary "Che" Guevara is executed in Bolivia Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, better known to the world as "Che" Guevara, is executed by Bolivian armed forces on this day in 1967. Born in Argentina, Guevara was a professional revolutionary who became involved in the Guatemalan revolution of the 1950s. It was during this time that he discovered Marxism and became a fervent convert to the philosophy. Following the overthrow of the Guatemalan government by a U.S.-sponsored coup in 1954, Guevara traveled to Mexico where he joined up with Cuban revolutionary...

The lead attorney for pro football star Michael Vick said Monday that the Atlanta Falcons quarterback will plead guilty to dogfighting and related charges and will "accept full responsibility for his actions and the mistakes he has made." Billy Martin, heading up Vick's legal team, issued the following statement: "After consulting with his family over the weekend. Michael Vick ask that I announce today that he has reached an agreement with Federal prosecutors regarding the charges pending against him. Mr. Vick has agreed to enter a plea of Guilty to those charges and to accept full responsibility for his actions...

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) - The largest U.S. Presbyterian Church body approved a measure on Tuesday that would open the way for the ordination of gays and lesbians under certain circumstances. The new policy was approved on a vote of 57-43 percent among 500 church representatives at the biennial meeting of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. It gives local church organizations more leeway in deciding if gays can be ordained as lay deacons and elders as well as clergy, provided they are faithful to the church's core values. "It permits local governing bodies to examine candidates on a wider criterion than sexual...

MONTGOMERY -- Bobby Frank Cherry, convicted of killing four black girls in a racially motivated bombing of a Birmingham church in 1963, died Thursday in prison. He was 74. Cherry died at about 3:30 p.m. in the hospital unit at Kilby Correctional Facility in Montgomery,

Linda Diane Tevis crashed into a parked 18-wheeler on a foggy February morning. Injured and shaken, she was in no condition to deal with a wrecker driver trying to tow her car. "I was a little delirious." she said. "The air bag had hit me. The next thing I know he was saying he was going to tow my car." All of this happened as paramedics treated her before she went to the hospital. When she and her husband, Mike Tevis, were faxed a copy of the Lone Star Towing Service bill a short time later, they got delirious again....

Here is an excerpt from the Washington Post. Bill Clinton carrying a Bible is as phony as a Michael Moore documentary. By Gene Weingarten Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, September 17, 1998; Page D1 Life According to Clinton Clinton on God and Family: Extreme Unction On Easter Sunday, 1996, Clinton attended services at the church of one of the young victims of the plane crash in Bosnia that also killed Commerce Secretary Ron Brown. Then the president, his wife and daughter had brunch at the Four Seasons hotel. Then, the president went to the White House. Then, he telephoned Monica...

Crime victims speaking up -- and letting loose 12/29/2002 By SELWYN CRAWFORD and MICHAEL E. YOUNG / The Dallas Morning News Shaking from nerves, burning with anger, Sabrina Kavanaugh stood at the microphone and spoke to the man who'd horribly abused the little girl she'd waited so long to adopt. "I hope that every day that you're in prison that they beat you within an inch of your life," she told Kenneth Atkinson, the 8-year-old's stepfather, at the end of his trial for child abuse. "I hope they rape you. I hope they molest you. "Then and only then...